Topics on this page:

• What is Informal Kinship Care?
• School Enrollment
• Educational Decision Making

What is Informal Kinship Care?

"Informal kinship care" is a living arrangement for a child who is not in the care, custody, or  guardianship of the local department of social services where a relative of the child provides for the child's care and custody due to a serious family hardship. "Serious family hardship" means:
Death of a parent or legal guardian of the child;
Serious illness of a parent or legal guardian of the child;
Drug addiction of a parent or legal guardian of the child;
Incarceration of a parent or legal guardian of the child;
Abandonment by a parent or legal guardian of the child; or
Assignment of a parent or legal guardian of a child to active military duty.

A kinship care arrangement does not require the caregiver to have legal custody of the child. Kinship care givers can be either relatives or non-relatives. A "relative" is an adult related to the child by blood or marriage within the fifth degree of consanguinity.  A relative providing kinship care may be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin or another relative. Non-Relatives with a close connection to the child may also be kinship caregivers. Non-relative caregivers are sometime referred to as “fictive kin” and may include godparents, neighbors, teachers, domestic partners, biological parents of a child’s sibling, church members/spiritual teachers. 

School Enrollment

In Maryland, children must attend public school in the county where the child is domiciled with the child's parent, guardian, or relative providing kinship care. If a child lives with a relative providing informal kinship care the county superintendent must allow the child to attend a public school in the caregiver's county of domicile. The relative caregiver must verify the informal kinship care through a sworn affidavit. The affidavit must include:

• The name and date of birth of the child;
• The name and address of the child's parent or legal guardian;
• The name and address of the relative providing informal kinship care;
• The date the relative assumed informal kinship care;
• The nature of the serious family hardship and why it resulted in informal kinship care;
• The kinship relation to the child of the relative providing informal kinship care; 
• The name and address of the school the child previously attended;
   

The form for the affidavit is printed in the law itself. It is also available for free from each County Board of Education, local Department of Social Services, and local Area Agency on Aging. These agencies also must attach written instructions to the form. The kinship caregiver must file an affidavit annually at least 2 weeks prior to the beginning of the school year for each year the child continues to live with the relative because of a serious family hardship. An affidavit may be filed during a school year (so you should be able to transfer the child to your local school even if he or she started school somewhere else).

Read the Law: Md. Code, Education § 7-101

The relative submitting the affidavit may be required to provide supporting documentation for the serious family hardship(s), including, when possible, the telephone number and address of any authority who is legally authorized to provide information that can verify the statements in the affidavit.

• If you are not sure what kind of supporting documentation the school will want, ask them to tell you in writing what they need you to bring to them.
• The school board cannot require anyone to reveal information about a parent or guardian of the child that would violate privacy laws, so they must accept reasonable documentation. For example, if the parent is in a drug treatment facility, the facility may not be able to reveal anything at all about the patient to the school board. Therefore, the school board will have to accept reasonable documentation.
• Any person who willfully makes a material misrepresentation in the affidavit is subject to a penalty payable to the county for three times the pro rata share of tuition for the time the child fraudulently attends a public school in the county.

If a change occurs in the care or in the serious family hardship of the child, the relative providing informal kinship care must notify the local school system in writing within 30 days of the change. If a child fraudulently attends a public school in a county where the child is not domiciled with the child's parent or guardian, then the child's parent or guardian is subject to penalty payable to the county for the pro rata share of tuition for time the child fraudulently attended a public school in the county. 

Read the Law: Md. Code, Education § 7-101

Educational Decision Making

Unless the court appoints a guardian for the child, or awards custody of the child to someone other than the relative providing informal kinship care, the relative providing informal kinship care will make the full range of educational decisions for the child. The kinship caregiver must make reasonable efforts to inform the parent or legal guardian of the educational decisions made for the child. The parent or legal guardian of the child has final decision making authority regarding the educational needs of the child. If there is disagreement between a parent and the relative providing care, the parent's decision must be followed.
 

Read the Law: Md. Code, Education § 7-101